2024 EP and top five Albums of the year!
2024 is over, in most cases we’ve really put pressure on ourselves to have this out by or before Christmas. This year though, I wanted to make sure the write ups didn’t feel like the result of burnout. So, where a normal AsterTracks year end list would have fifty or so releases on it, this one has six. At the bottom of this post you can find a playlist with thirty songs, however, one each from the top ten EPs and albums, and ten assorted singles. The normal Reddit disclaimer is also present, need it now more than ever.
I am still proud of Aster Tracks, the artists we’ve connected with, and what it has brought to my own life. This will continue into 2025. My plans this year is to try new things and be less devoted to mass reporting on every album I listen to. I hope you continue to check in.
Just like last year, if you're here from Reddit, start here.
EP of the year goes to Ignite // Decay by Wave Break released independently
When it dropped, Ignite//Decay felt like a massive moment in time. The wait between the first single and the full EP was sixteen months and even at just five tracks it was worth it. Every song here is its own beast and shows, through and through, all four of these musicians have a lor of technical skill and songwriting ability. With crystal clear influence, a lot of heart and five simply undeniable tracks, there is no doubt of Wave Break in this scene.
While not the debut, this feels like the first chapter. This is the first non-single release by the more complete Wave Break, who was just front woman Kelly Barber on 2021’s Puzzle Pieces. On the “Wither Away,” the closing track here, she wonders how much is left in the tank. If these songs, the momentum they’re generating and any anticipation of the future is to account for, I’m guessing it’ll go a while longer.
#5. The soundtrack to Mean Girls (2024) released via Paramount / Interscope
I have tried, on many occasions, to do movie of the year as a bonus at the end of our list week and it never works out. By the time New Year’s Day passes I’m usually way too exhausted from putting out the lists and move on. This year, the selected film was a musical, had an accompanying album and would have felt wrong on all counts to not be included on the list.
In this version North Shore Feels like a more tangible place than in 2004. Characters feel like real people who have much more range of expression, so much so the important enough ones warp reality itself to sing about it. Queer people are not only vocally in the supporting cast, they also just are. You can catch a new manner of representation, no matter how subtle, on every viewing. The songs here have just as much range, every character presents their musical numbers in completely different genres, down to the one song each the non-Regina Plastics have.
Mean Girls became a comfort watch for me through the course of the year, I’ve seen it countless times since its January release date. Not long after I took a trip to see a stage production of the show with my partner. On the drive home we talked about our goals for the future, a conversation which shaped a lot of the year for me. Outside of my house, however, I haven’t seen a whole lot of love for this. It’s never on purpose, but this fulfills the once-a-year curve ball.
Our review of the Mean Girls soundtrack
#4. birdwatching by CLIFFDIVER released via SideOneDummy
2022’s Exercise Your Demons made our year end list with its tragic yet cathartic themes and blends of pop punk, emo and a little bit of sax. On birdwatching things aren’t dramatically different genre wise, but CLIFFDIVER looks instead to navigating our thirties with some patience. (My being thirty for most of the year probably helped quite a bit.) It is also true, however, in just a half-hour run time, the Oklahoma band manages to throw a sonic grab bag at the listener, shifting everywhere from acoustic rock to hardcore thrash track to track. The chemistry between co-vocalists Joey Duffy and Briana Wright is no longer something you have to see to believe, it’s just on tape now. The greatest example of this being “team fight tactics” where the two lead a love song which sees them crack jokes, harmonize and deliver something incredibly sweet.
When I saw Cliffy in 2023, I left the venue thinking “this band is so much better than any of their records.” Now I’m not so sure. Everything which makes this band great, the friendship between them, their love for music across the board and a dedication to all of it shine through here. birdwatching is the quintessential CLIFFDIVER album, hopefully with this to show for them they have a long way to go.
#3. In Lieu of Flowers by Aaron West and The Roaring Twenties released via Hopeless
Dan Campbell of The Wonder Years side project with way too many members has always interested me and this year I finally dove in. Aaron's world is fictional, yet Flowers as a record feels so lived in. He lives through the pandemic with his health worker mother on the front lines. He battles his addiction and puts it on display for his entire band, as well as an unwitting audience, to see. He also makes amends, falls out again and makes amends again with his loved ones. The entirety of the five years between 2019's Routine Maintenance up until the present is covered. When it comes to an end Aaron sees his ex-wife pass by on the street and quietly goes inside to prepare for his set.
I first listened to Flowers, as well as its accompanying podcast, on a trip back home to New England. On this trip I tried to lay a little lower, only sticking to some friends and my mother, and having this in my ear helped me appreciate the smaller things day to day. I tried to be more present and, in the moment, having come to full terms with the depth of my own anxieties. Having carried this to the real world I feel less in my own head. The things which screamed at me whenever I was alone have dulled to a more room appropriate volume.
This record isn't about me, though, of course none of these are. It's about Aaron, whose story came to a close on this album but will live to tour again. I’m sure, in spite of the conclusion, there will even be a fourth album in another five years. Guess I have some homework to do between now and then.
Support Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties
#2. UTOPIA NOW! By Rosie Tucker released via Sentimental
It’s easy to read UTOPIA NOW as strictly sarcastic and pretentious. Not a single song on here, save for the one cover, pulls any punches on any of the hills it chooses to die on. The two songs representing the two distinct theses don’t go without personal responsibility, however. “All My Exes” deconstructs the responsibility we all have for creating excess while also admitting it’s more convenient, especially in the modern world, to do so. “White Savior Myth” tackles a very specific type of community member while admitting, right at the end, the author is just as guilty. All of this set to indie rock cuts and pop punk inspired jams so fun, sometimes you don’t even really think about it.
Something I always worry about with running this blog is I’ve lost the ability to enjoy music on my own time. When my Wrapped came around I was pleasantly surprised to see an artist I never even posted about at my number one. In the coming year, though it will take some doing, I plan on going more analog. Streaming is a soul-sucking practice which inspires artists to churn out for-profit art and we have the big bands to back this up. I cannot pretend, however, I didn’t find an artist I spent hundreds or thousands of minutes on by letting the algorithm shuffle one of their songs after an album played. An artist critical about this in the very piece the algorithm chose to push! When I started posting here it was because I kept thinking “someone made this” every time I fell in love with a record. I guess the love was never truly lost.
The AsterTracks album of the year is I HAVE BEEN FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE by Evelyn Gray released independently
Sonically, Fighting is atmospherically rich, with new notes or measures of sound design to discover on every spin. I, myself, am still finding the integration of ideas, new stems, new ways a vocal cuts off or kicks in. To top it off, every single mood is both exactly correct and yet so incredibly guard dropping. Every track changes dramatically and while no shift is as drastic as the frantic, terrified "HIDING" into the mocking and jovial "HEAT FROM FIRE" it is all calculated.
I lived with this record for three months straight. AsterTracks was blessed in covering this album's entire cycle, both singles and the full length, on the blog. Being a Portland local, I went to the album release show, the only full band show on the run. Four acts, mostly if not all trans, and an evening which reflected a community of musicians looking out for each other. Everyone felt like everyone's biggest fan.
Truthfully, any of these five albums would cut it as number one. I chose the one which I thought best represents this blog and my own attachments. There aren't a lot of records where an artist manages to capture the actual every day struggles of transness, yet I hear my casual frustrations as well the real frustrations of an artist I really respect. I truly believe this eighteen-minute record might even be at the top of the decade list.
Our review of I HAVE BEEN FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE
The AsterTracks Year End playlist, with more artists than covered here
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